• Journal of Science Education
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• v.42 no.1
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• pp.49-65
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• 2018

Astronomy is the subject that can easily draw students' interest in studying science, therefore plays an important role in developing scientific core competence. However, it is difficult to develop spatial thinking that is required in understanding astronomical concepts through the classroom lessons. Planetarium, along with the science museum, is one of the most representative informal educational institution where astronomical concepts can be taught beyond time and space constraints. In this study, we developed the astronomy education program that is operated in the planetarium and applied the program to the elementary, middle and high-school students to investigate the effects of the planetarium lesson compared to the classroom lesson. The duration of this research was about 8 months, and the number of the students involved is 761, including participants of the 1 night and 2 days camps in the Daegu National Science Museum. The newly developed planetarium lesson is comparable to the previous classroom lesson of which topics are cardinal points, constellation, and the rotation of the earth. Test items were developed to evaluate the understanding of the astronomical concepts. The study was conducted based on the pre- and post-test with non-equivalent groups design comparing classroom and planetarium lessons. The results of this study are as follows. First, planetarium lesson is more effective for understanding astronomical concepts such as the cardinal points, earth's rotation, and the constellation than classroom lesson. Second, planetarium has a positive effect irrespective of gender and previous knowledge. Third, planetarium for high school students has the same effect as additional observation activities followed by the classroom instruction. Therefore, planetarium can be used as an alternative, effective tool when night observation is not available. In summary, planetarium is an effective tool that helps students to understand the astronomical concepts.

• Journal of the Korean Society of Earth Science Education
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• v.3 no.3
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• pp.228-238
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• 2010

The purpose of this study is to examine the effects which applies teaching program that search solution to prevent global warming in middle school gifted class. This program of total 10 class was theoretical and experimental class and the students presented after collecting the synthetic data about climate-change and roleplayed what they debated to firm their country's opinion about Kyoto Protocol. Finally, students as policymaker made mock Kyoto Protocol by discussion. Impression papers and images about climate-changes was made by students in last class. In discussion of making up mock Kyoto Protocol, developed and developing nations had an argument about carbon dioxide emissions because of their economic benefits. In the course of allocating mutual $CO_2$ reduction, they needed yield and negotiation among nations. Although they mainly took passive position about $CO_2$ reduction, atmosphere that all the country make greater effort for the future global environment was formed. Like this, students had more concepts over climate change by making mock Kyoto Protocol. And they could equipped global scientific literacy and responsibility by participating in social decision making process of solving global environmental issues.

• Journal of the Korean Society of Earth Science Education
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• v.14 no.2
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• pp.112-122
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• 2021

The goal of this study is to explore ways to restructure Convergence Elective Courses in science in preparation for the high school credit system, ahead of the 2022 revised science curriculum. This study started from the problem that the 2015 revised science curriculum has not guaranteed science subject choice for students with non-science/engineering career aptitudes. To this end, a survey was conducted by randomly sampling high schools across the country. A total of 1,738 students responded to the questionnaire of 3 science elective courses such as Science History, Life & Science, Convergence Science. In addition, in-depth interviews with 12 science teachers were conducted to examine the field operation of these three courses, which will be classified and revised as Convergence Elective subjects in the 2022 revised curriculum. According to the results of the study, high school students perceive these three courses as science literacy courses, and find these difficult to learn due to lack of personal interest, and difficulties in content itself. The reason students choose these three courses is mainly because they have aptitude for science, or these courses have connection with their desired career path. Teachers explained that students mainly choose Life & Science, and both teachers and students avoid Science History because the course content is difficult. Based on the research results, we suggested ways to restructure Convergence Electives for the 2022 revised curriculum including developing convergence electives composed of interdisciplinary convergence core concepts with high content accessibility, developing convergence electives with core concepts related to AI or advanced science, developing module-based courses, and supporting professional development of teachers who will teach interdisciplinary convergence electives.

• Journal of the Korean earth science society
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• v.29 no.2
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• pp.163-174
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• 2008

In this study, we compared textbook knowledge organization with students' mental models to contribute to a more well-designed instruction scheme. The selected science content was the cause of moon phases. We investigated 9 textbooks and 25 third-year middle school students. Patterns and features in participants' mental models were identified through cross inter-rater data analysis by 9 researchers, including in service teachers and experts in science education. According to the results, observing and modeling are the main activities engaged in when dealing with moon phases. The activities consisted of such concepts as: lunar revolution, the sun's parallel rays, the illuminated half of moon, and the relative positions of the sun, moon, and earth. Each concept involved inquiry skills such as: creating and manipulating models, utilizing the relationship between time and space, and communicating. However, the most important skills which are required for authentic scientific inquiry, namely controlling variables and formulating hypotheses, were missing. We categorized students' mental models into three types: scientific models, mixed models, and alternative models. The knowledge structure of each of the models was also discussed in this paper. Consequently, it was found that, typically, students were not given enough opportunities to strengthen the connection among ideas.

• Journal of the Korean earth science society
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• v.23 no.2
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• pp.147-153
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• 2002

Reasonable and reliable assessment method is one of the most important issues in science education, Partial credits method is an effective tool for assessing students' science inquiry problem solving. The purposes of this study were to classify the Problem solving types based on the analysis of the thinking Process, and how much the related science concept and the science process skills were used in solving science inquiry problems, and to describe the possibility and rationality of the assessment method that gives partial credit 128 high school seniors were selected and their answers were analyzed to identify science concepts they used to solve each problem, and the result was used as the criterion in the scientific concept test development. Also, to study the science inquiry problem solving type, 152 high school seniors were selected, and protocols were made from audio-taped data of their problem solving process through a think-aloud method and retrospective interviews. In order to get a raw data needed in statistical comparison of reliability, discrimination and the difficulty of the test and the production of the regression equation that determines the ratio of partial credit, 640 students were selected and they were given a science inquiry problem test, a science process skills test, and a scientific concept test. Research result suggested it is more reasonable and reliable to switch to the assessment method that applies partial credit to different problem solving types based on the analysis of the thinking process in problem solving process, instead of the dichotomous credit method.

• Journal of The Korean Association For Science Education
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• v.29 no.8
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• pp.910-922
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• 2009

The purpose of the study was to investigate the professional level of the Korean non-physics major middle-school science teachers in 'force and motion' content knowledge. For the study, nine science teachers who majored in chemistry, biology, or earth science were sampled from middle-schools in a big city in Korea. The physics concept test-tool (subjective type), which the authors developed, were administered, and then followed by in-depth interviews. The research findings are as follows: Firstly, non-physics major science teachers' correct answer rate in physics knowledge test of secondary school level was not so high that they may have difficulty in teaching correct concepts in physics to middle-school students. Secondly, some teachers show that they can not apply some physics concepts from one to another situation. That means that they may have difficulty in teaching physics conceptual application in various situations to students.

• Journal of the Korean earth science society
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• v.45 no.3
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• pp.239-259
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• 2024

In this study, a qualitative meta-analysis was conducted on research papers on earth science education to derive knowledge of students' understanding of specific science topics-greenhouse effect, global warming, and climate change-within the context of collective Pedagogical Content Knowledge (PCK). Twenty-two research papers addressing students' alternative conceptions (misconceptions) about these topics were selected and analyzed for their respective definitions, causes (mechanisms), and impacts. Semantic network analysis and a mental model framework were applied to synthesize the findings. The meta-analysis revealed several key insights: (1) Regarding the greenhouse effect, students often used the terms "greenhouse effect" and "global warming" interchangeably, lacked knowledge about the types of greenhouse gases, and misunderstood their roles. They commonly associated the greenhouse effect with environmental pollution or changes in the ozone layer, failing to recognize its relation to the heat balance between the surface and atmosphere. (2) Concerning global warming, students confused it with sea level rise and linked it to pollution, ozone layer changes, and glacier melting. They understood global warming as a disruption of the heat balance between the surface and atmosphere but had misconceptions about its environmental impacts. (3) In terms of climate change, students used the term interchangeably with global warming, weather change, and climate anomalies. They associated climate change with atmospheric pollution and ozone layer depletion but misunderstood its environmental impacts. As result, three mental models-categorical, mechanistic, and hierarchical misconceptions-were identified as collective PCK. The implications for enhancing earth science teachers' PCK were discussed based on these findings.

• Journal of the Korean Society of Earth Science Education
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• v.7 no.2
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• pp.203-213
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• 2014

This study investigates the implementation of the Converged Science, and what teachers and students think of it in order to understand how it is taking root in schools. The results identify ways in which the new curriculum can establish itself in schools. One hundred and two science teachers, who had participated in the mandatory workshop for the 2009 Amended Course of Science, were given the first survey regarding their general perception of the converged science curriculum. A year after the first implementation of the new curriculum, one hundred and seventy one science teachers were given the second survey in order to determine their general perception and actual results in the classrooms. A similar survey was given to one hundred and forty nine tenth grade students. In addition, one hundred and forty eight tenth grade students, who had experienced the new science curriculum, took part in another survey revealing their general thoughts the course. The results show that the teachers' responses are rarely positive. The teachers claimed that the contents were too extensive while the level of fundamental concepts were too rigorous for tenth graders. They also asserted that the contents contained too much of a particular subject, and that it is necessary to lower the level of rigor. With regard to the level of unification of converged science textbooks, the teachers expressed that they are still slightly inadequate. The subject of science in the seventh curricula was criticized due to its lack of convergence: over 90% of the respondents answered negatively. On the other hand, the students responded more positively: they said that the new converged science was difficult to learn, but was interesting. In Busan, most high schools adopted the new curriculum in the first year when it was introduced for the first time. In most cases (over 80%), several teachers divided and taught the contents either according to their majors or regardless of their majors.

• Journal of the Korean Society of Earth Science Education
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• v.5 no.2
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• pp.189-196
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• 2012

This study was conducted using the phenomenological research method to collect and analyze high school students' opinions about fusing "science" textbook that reflect the 2009 Revised Curriculum. Ninety six students were chosen to be participants from 32 high schools that selected by city and province. The data collection was carried by individual interviews and group discussions. The results are as follow; students' opinions were summarized to 50 themes, and then classified to 9 theme clusters and 2 categories. Students' opinions were divided into a positive position - "it is good because interesting material associated with life", "the structure of textbook is good", "teachers' efforts make class interesting", and "it will help in career choices"- and negative position - "the content is difficult to understand", "the configuration is complex", "I have less interest about it because it doesn't related College Scholastic Ability Test", "teacher's explanation is insufficient", and "it is not associated with career choice"-. The living-related material and story-telling configuration received good reviews from students. On the other hand, the configuration of topics makes many concepts to use, so students have difficulty understanding the content and pointed out the lack of teachers' explanations about unfamiliar areas. In order to solve the difficulties, variety teaching material for fusing "science" will be developed.

• Journal of The Korean Association For Science Education
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• v.42 no.2
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• pp.289-309
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• 2022

In recent years, astronomy has been snowballing: including Higgs particle discovery, black hole imaging, extraterrestrial exploration, and deep space observation. Students are also largely interested in astronomy. The purpose of this study is to discover what needs to be improved in the current astronomy curriculum in light of recent scientists' researches and discoveries. We collected keywords from all papers published from 2011 to 2020 in four selected journals-ApJ, ApJL, A&A, and MNRAS- by R package to examine research trends. The curriculum contents were extracted by synthesizing the in-service teachers' coding results in the 2015 revised curriculum document of six subjects (Science, Integrated Science, Earth Science I, Earth Science II, Physics II, Convergence Science). The research results are as follows: first, keywords that appear steadily in astronomy are 'galaxies: formation, galaxy: active, star: formation, accretion, method: numerical.' Second, astronomy curriculum includes all areas except the 'High Energy Astrophysical Phenomena' area within the common science curriculum learned by all students. Third, it is necessary to review the placement of content elements by subject and grade and to consider introducing new concepts based on astronomy research keywords. This is an exploratory study to compare curriculum and the field of scientific research that forms the basis of the subject. We expect to provide implications for a future revision of the astronomy curriculum as a primary ground investigation.